Astonishing paper sculptures by Motohiko Odani

Odani Motohiko
Born 1972 in Kyoto. BFA in sculpture and MFA from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Best known for his visions of the future premised on "mutation" and "transformation" of the body in sculpture, film and photography.
There are more pictures of the Japanese artist here.

Snowden alone in calling out Empire as naked by Rick Falkvinge

Snowden alone in calling out Empire as naked
by Rick Falkvinge*

June 27, 2013 at Russia Today.

"The American Empire stands naked, called out by one man among a hundred thousand who knew its dirty secrets and systematic betrayal of the world's trust.

While international politics in the West has been leaping over each other to suck up to The Empire's New Clothes following September 11, 2001, the United States wasted no time in reinforcing the order of Pax Americana - that the US would establish peace in the world through superior firepower.

The world was turned into a simple black-and-white "You're with us, or you're against us." In the decade that followed, many countries that were inconvenient to Pax Americana were invaded, none of which had anything to do with the events on September 11.

The rattling of sabers were reminiscent of a high school bully: "if you don't accept that we can do whatever we want, we might be mean to you, so behave." Or, as US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed that sentence in just slightly more diplomatic language recently: "Hand over Snowden, or there may be consequences."

Most people in the United States aren't aware that their country is acting like their hated high school bully to most of the rest of the world. The few who do tend to take it with humor: bumper stickers have been seen satirizing this as "Be nice to America, or we'll bring democracy to your country", playing on the media spin that every war of aggression to maintain Pax Americana is about "bringing democracy" somewhere.

So when one man, Edward Snowden, reveals to the world that the Empire stands naked and that it really has been behaving like a bully, wiretapping everybody wholesale, there are shockwaves. But that's where the similarities with the folklore tale ends. Where the naked emperor cringed and realized the game was up, the naked Empire instead chooses to keep rewarding sucking up, pretending that nothing has been revealed at all, and to punish the whistleblower at all costs as a warning to others.

Politicians in the United States have been quick to call Snowden this, that and the other thing. No wonder. The surveillance hawks who couldn't care less of the human rights of the world would much rather talk about Edward Snowden as an individual than about the fact that the world's trust in the United States has been systematically betrayed wholesale.

Shadows are cast on the White House in the early morning in Washington.(Reuters / Larry Downing)

Take Microsoft software as an important example. As part of the NSA unravelings, it was uncovered that Microsoft gives security holes to the National Security Agency for exploiting before it sends out security repair patches to its users and customers - essentially betraying the trust of every customer worldwide, and making sure that no government, corporation, or media outlet can ever trust Microsoft products again: for Microsoft gave the master key to every customers' operations to the NSA.

Without Snowden setting the ball rolling, we would not have known this, and we would continue to have been owned - in the hacker and literal sense of the word - by the United States. Now, we can at least see that any Microsoft-developed software, and probably any closed US-developed software, is a huge security risk that no nation outside the United States can afford to take.

Today, Snowden is said to be comfortable on the inside of Sheremetyevo Airport outside Moscow, pending new travel documents being issued by some friendly country. (You have to love the fact that he's enraging US bully hawks by planning his trip to China, Russia, Cuba, and Venezuela. The only thing missing would be a trip to Pyongyang with a stopover in Tehran - and we find ourselves rooting for the countries that shield him, those countries we have been told sternly are black-and-white evil.)

What's really interesting is how other people who have had their doubts about the United States have started to come forward. There are now rumors that those who have been doubting the Empire's ability to pay back its enormous debts are starting to raise their voices about it. No wonder: the United States has long been bankrupt, but people have been... pretending... otherwise to make sure that a crash to the world economy doesn't happen on their watch.

If the doubts in creditworthiness take hold, things can come crashing down quicker than you would expect. Compare with 1987, at what felt like the height of the Cold War - who would have guessed that the Soviet Union would be formally dissolved just four years later?

If history teaches us anything, it is that all empires come to an end. History books could theoretically point at Snowden's leak of conscience as the starting point of major, major changes to the geopolitical order. At least they ended a blind and naive trust in the United States' interest in doing good for anybody but itself."

* Founder of the Swedish Pirate Party. Evangelist on civil liberties and infopolicy.

Osama's death: Where is Osama?

The iconic picture of Obama and his staff watching Osama's being killed.
There is always something missing in the official stories.

Horse's tenderness

Do you feel the peace?
I don't know who is the author.

Julian Lennon: at peace in spite of John and Yoko

When I first watched the right video it really affected me that one of my "heroes" was that insensitive to his son especially because he had a difficult childhood: - "Mother, You had me but I never had you/ I wanted you you, didn't want me." ""Father, you left me but I never left you/ I needed you, you didn't need me" - is in the lyrics of "Mother" that John wrote after starting therapy.
Hard to believe that with such problems John was capable of verbally abusing his son and not be there for him most of the time.

But that's the way it is and now I found the left video where he is together and when the name of his father is mentioned he behaves like he has been doing his whole life in front of others: pretending nothing happened.
This is a video about  his work and his last album that he dedicated to his stepfather that passed away four years before.
The interviewer talks about Yoko Ono having auctioned postcards that John and Julian exchanged. Julian had to buy the postcards back and other John's belongings that Yoko
Ono also sold.

"That is disgusting!" said the interviewer. Yes, disgusting and  what Yoko Ono has done and is still doing with John Lennon's legacy is disgusting.
She is making money, distorting and doing a lot of harm to Lennon's ideology, messages and life experience. Julian who had a first hand experience with Yoko says: "I think she knew exactly what she was doing from day one."

I met a Japanese once that told me that his father knew Yoko Ono in Japan and that she has left her child and family because she wanted to make money. This is an anecdote evidence but I believe there are other Japaneses that have met Yoko prior to her marriage that can give their testimony.

The bright side is that Julian is very well in spite of all of this.

Julian and his mother Cynthia

Keep calm and carry on?

Never forget that "Keep calm and carry on" is a phrase of a poster created by UK government at the beginning of WWII.

It is everywhere in the western countries again. I don't think we need more wars or interventions in countries.
Peace is the answer.

Famous paintings you must know 1

René Magritte "La Trahison des Images" (Image's treason) was painted in 1929. Magritte is a famous surrealist painter who approached issues linked to language a characteristic that was not shared with  other members of this movement.

"Ceci n'est pas une pipe." is the realistic representation of a pipe and not the pipe itself. Simple as that.


There are some paintings and artworks that are part of the western cultural heritage and are used in propaganda, graphic design, clothes stamps... they are everywhere.
I decided to post some of them so that those who don't know them can identify that the T-shirt they wearing is inspired by one of this famous art  pieces. Art is not being teached anywhere and only those who like it very much have access to this world.
I hope it helps some people knowing these renowned pieces.

Apartheid in Hebron

Ceci n'est pas Apartheid.

Brazilian protests: why do the police use shields in protests?

Protest in Rio de Janeiro June, 17, 2013 in front of legislative assembly

The protests, triggered by a hike in mass transit fares that began more than a week ago, is spreading across the country raising many other problems.
The protesters don't want political parties but it is inevitable that they claim that they are supporting and even among the crowds without any prove.

Tear gas and rubber bullets are being used but it seems that there is not a single pacific demonstration in the world without the presence of the police armed as if combating armed people. Why they use shields is a mystery  since all the violence are created by their forces.

Maybe they fear the flowers.

Identical Twins' Genes Are Not Identical

I'm always amazed by the complexity of human beings.

Identical Twins' Genes Are Not Identical
Twins may appear to be cut from the same cloth, but their genes reveal a different pattern

By Anne Casselman

Identical twins are identical, right? After all, they derive from just one fertilized egg, which contains one set of genetic instructions, or genome, formed from combining the chromosomes of mother and father.

But experience shows that identical twins are rarely completely the same. Until recently, any differences between twins had largely been attributed to environmental influences (otherwise known as "nurture"), but a recent study contradicts that belief.

Geneticist Carl Bruder of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and his colleagues closely compared the genomes of 19 sets of adult identical twins. In some cases, one twin's DNA differed from the other's at various points on their genomes. At these sites of genetic divergence, one bore a different number of copies of the same gene, a genetic state called copy number variants.

Normally people carry two copies of every gene, one inherited from each parent. "There are, however, regions in the genome that deviate from that two-copy rule, and that's where you have copy number variants," Bruder explains. These regions can carry anywhere from zero to over 14 copies of a gene.

Scientists have long used twins to study the roles of nature and nurture in human genetics and how each affects disease, behavior, and conditions, such as obesity. But Bruder's findings suggest a new way to study the genetic and environmental roots of disease.

For example, one twin in Bruder's study was missing some genes on particular chromosomes that indicated a risk of leukemia, which he indeed suffered. The other twin did not.

Bruder therefore believes that the differences in identical twins can be used to identify specific genetic regions that coincide with specific diseases. Next, he plans to examine blood samples from twin pairs in which only one suffers from asthma or psoriasis to see whether he can find gene copy number changes that relate to either of these illnesses.

The result might also call into question the many findings of previous twin studies that assumed identical twins were indeed identical, Bruder notes. "It's pretty unlikely they're going to significantly change any of the results found so far," counters Kerry Jang, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who runs Canada's largest twin study. "We can adjust our models to take [genetic differences] into account in the same way we've adjusted for different environments."

The discovery of this genetic variation gives hope for an obscure but pressing issue in the case of a criminal suspect who is an identical twin. "If one twin is a suspect and the whereabouts of the other twin cannot be determined, then the jury is often left without the ability to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt" in cases that rely on DNA evidence, says Frederick Bieber, a pathologist at Harvard Medical School.

"If the twin issue comes up in a criminal investigation it's possible that if there are [copy number variants] that differ between the two twins that might help sort that out," Bieber says.

Given that there are 80 pairs of identical twins in Virginia's convicted offender database alone, this might not be as small an issue as it may sound. And such genetic variation also matters to the population at large.

Bruder speculates that such variation is a natural occurrence that accumulates with age in everyone. "I believe that the genome that you're born with is not the genome that you die with—at least not for all the cells in your body," he says.

Charles Lee, a geneticist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, agrees. Genetic variations can arise after a double strand of DNA breaks when exposed to ionizing radiation or carcinogens. "It reminds us to be careful about our environment because our environment can help to change our genome," he says.

Plus, these variations may predict age-related diseases. Lee adds: "As you age … your chances for having a genomic rearrangement that causes a certain disease increases all the time."

The differences between identical twins increase as they age, because environmentally triggered changes accumulate. But twins can also begin their lives with differences, according to Bruder's study, and that calls into question their very name.

"Maybe we shouldn't call them identical twins," Harvard's Bieber says. "We should call them 'one-egg twins.'"

From Scientific American.

Syrian conflict for dummies

American Veteran Center: historians and journalist internship for future veterans' story

Americans might always feel safe for there are always people fighting for their freedom, and people wanting to tell the story of those who work hard, and sometimes give their lives for the blessed people who lives in America.
Of course that a lot of work is also done in America that requires putting people like Susan Lindauer in jail for five years or prosecuting people like Bradley Manning.

According to James C. Roberts, the president of American Veteran Center it is all in the name of freedom:

Welcome to our website!

The American Veterans Center is honored to have the privilege of preserving the legacy of America’s servicemen and women of every generation. Here at the Center, we know that it is essential to honor and remember not only the veterans we have among us today but also the veterans who have passed away and the many service members who have died while fighting for our freedom.

We sponsor numerous activities throughout the year that educate the public, with a special focus on tomorrow’s leaders, about the many sacrifices that have been made for individual liberty by thousands of people in the United States military. (emphasis added)

On this site, we are creating an interactive environment, where you can view, read, share or listen to veterans’ stories. The site will be constantly updated as we dig into our archives, digitalizing material shared with us in past years, and posting new material from patriots that are willing to share their stories with us and their fellow Americans.

Our dream is that all Americans, especially the youth, will never forget the sacrifices that were made by American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines throughout our history to preserve the freedoms we enjoy today. (emphasis added)

I encourage you to get involved in this mission and to contribute as you are able. Almost 1,100 World War II veterans die each day. It is crucial that we work together to preserve their legacy, along with the legacy of service members of every generation.

Enjoy the site!

President
American Veterans Center

Picture: "Interns and students are given the opportunity to meet and learn about America's greatest heroes. Here, former intern Michael O'Donnell visits the grave of Joe Ronnie Hooper, the most decorated soldier of the Vietnam War.
Michael researched Hooper's story, which he wrote for our publication Valor: the Veterans of Vietnam."

I just miss the story of those vets who are homeless, are suffering from serious emotional distress, are committing suicide and so many other serious problems. After all the sponsors want to "Guard the Legacy of all Veterans."  Will you donate?

Geography: Fail and Correction

Source of the picture: Lustich.

Sleepless on an island by Henry w. L

Photography by Henry w.l.

What Neuroscience cannot Tell about Ourselves by Raymond Tallis

Finally I found common sense in the neuroscientist kingdom. There are numerous disciplines that neuroscientists are trying to take over sometimes with hilarious approaches for those who work on the field.

Disciplines such as  neuroaesthetics, neuroeconomics, neurosociology, neuropolitics, neurotheology, neurophilosophy, neurolaw, neurolit and others are at the curriculum of some universities.
The neuroscience conceit is creating some appalling hypothesis and arguments that defy logics and sometimes are even funny because of the mistakes and incongruent ideas.
But the field is receiving money for research while the humanities and even the scientific researches that are not of the interest of these sponsors receive nothing.

I just found this article by Raymond Tallis, a neuroscientist, where he analyzes and criticises all this neuromania.

It is a long article and it can be downloaded as pdf here or read here.

Excerpts:

"As a clinical neuroscientist, I could easily expatiate on the wonders of a discipline that I believe has a better claim than mathematics  to being Queen of the Sciences. For a start, it is a science in which many other  sciences converge: physics, biology, chemistry, biophysics, biochemistry, pharmacology, and psychology, among others. In addition, its object of study is the one material object that, of all the material objects in the
universe, bears most closely on our lives: the brain, and more generally, the nervous system."

"What neuroscience does not do, however, is provide a satisfactory account of the conditions that are sufficient for behavior and awareness. Its descriptions of what these phenomena are and of how they arise are incomplete in several crucial respects, as we will see. The pervasive yet mistaken idea that neuroscience does fully account for awareness and behavior is neuroscientism, an exercise in science-based faith. While to live a human life requires having a brain in some kind of working order, it does not follow from this fact that to live a human life is to be a brain in some kind of working order. This confusion between necessary and sufficient conditions lies behind the encroachment of “neuroscientistic” discourse on academic work in the humanities, and the present epidemic of such neuro-prefixed pseudo-disciplines as neuroaesthetics, neuroeconomics, neurosociology, neuropolitics, neurotheology, neurophilosophy, and so on." (emphasis added)

"The failure to distinguish consciousness from neural activity corrodes our self-understanding in two significant ways. If we are just our brains, and our brains are just evolved organs designed to optimize our odds of survival — or, more precisely, to maximize the replicative potential of the genetic material for which we are the vehicle — then we are merely beasts like any other, equally beholden as apes and centipedes to biological drives. Similarly, if we are just our brains, and our brains are just material objects, then we, and our lives, are merely way stations in the great causal net that is the universe, stretching from the Big Bang to the Big Crunch." (emphasis added)

"Wrong ideas about what human beings are and how we work, especially if they are endlessly repeated, keep us from thinking about ourselves in ways that may genuinely advance our self-understanding. Indeed, proponents of the neuroscientific account of human behavior hope that it will someday supplant our traditional understandings of mind, behavior, and consciousness, which they dismiss as mere “folk psychology.” According to a 2007 New Yorker profile of professors Paul and Patricia Churchland,
two leading “neurophilosophers,” they like “to speculate about a day when whole chunks of English, especially the bits that constitute folk psychology, are replaced by scientific words that call a thing by its proper name  rather than some outworn metaphor.” The article recounts the occasion Patricia Churchland came home from a vexing day at work and told her husband, “Paul, don’t speak to me, my serotonin levels have hit bottom, my brain is awash in glucocorticoids, my blood vessels are full of adrenaline, and if it weren’t for my endogenous opiates I’d have driven the car into a tree on the way home. My dopamine levels need lifting. Pour me a Chardonnay, and I’ll be down in a minute.” Such awkward chemical conversation is unlikely to replace “folk psychology” anytime soon, despite the Churchlands’ fervent wishes, if only because it misses the actual human reasons for the reported neurochemical impairments — such as, for example, failing to get one’s favored candidate appointed to a post."  (emphasis added - keep reading  here.)

Raymond Tallis, emeritus professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, is the author, most recently, of Michelangelo’s Finger: An Exploration of Everyday Transcendence (Yale, 2010) and Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity (Acumen, forthcoming in 2011). This essay has been adapted from a lecture delivered in February 2010 at the American Enterprise Institute.

There is also a good article about neuroaesthetics here: "Art and the Limits of Neurosciences".

Prediction: Fail

The Russian Mcdonalds

MacDonald's at Red Square
Picture by Simon Griffiths at Flickr.

The capitalist American icon is operating in Russia for more than twenty years and according to Reuters "McDonald's, the world's biggest restaurant company by revenue, also plans to open at least 150 self-operated restaurants in Russia over the next three years."

I'll never understood how can people like burgers from fast-food chains. The fried potatoes taste like plastic and the meat... meat?
I ate three in this lifetime because there was no alternative and I was starving.  It might be because of the extremely low price that people eat it.

Buying real meat and doing it at home is cheaper. A hamburger can be done very quickly and it only takes a paper bag to carry it.

But Mcdonald's in Siberia will soon be a reality starting with five restaurants in Novosibirsk with 50 seats each.
Bon Appetit!

Quick test to know if the egg is fresh or rotten

Put the egg in a glass with water. If it floats it is rotten, if it lies down on the bottom it is good. I've been using this method since ever so only once I felt the smell of a rotten egg. Yuk!

Explanation from To your good health:

"As eggs age, gases build-up inside their shells, making them more buoyant. This is the best way to test whether an egg has gone rotten without having to break open the shell, risking the foul odor escaping. When an egg is extremely fresh it will lie on its side at the bottom of a pot of water. As it ages, the egg will begin to point upwards, and will finally float completely when it has gone bad. The whites of fresh eggs are firm, while not-so-fresh eggs have a very watery white. This is why it is best to use the freshest eggs possible for poaching and frying. Older eggs (before they actually float) are perfectly good for omelets, scrambling, or baking."

Bloggers shuts down on June

I'm a member of this directory for a long time and made numerous friends from many countries.
This site doesn't have a single advertisement and is totally dedicated to create a relationship among bloggers and promote blogs.

What a sad  place to live when everything has to be sponsored by companies and only money can make things keep going.

It is a huge lost for many bloggers used to rely on Bloggers to find blogs and socialize with their authors.

Did feminists really burned bras?

You must know about feminists burning bras but might never heard of "Miss America Protest".

Bras were not burned as the media reported. The outrageous and sensationalist action that never happened overshadowed the issues that women were bringing to discussion,

This is what happened according to Jo Freeman:

In 1968 and 1969 women's liberation staged demonstrations at the annual Miss America Beauty pageant held in Atlantic City, NJ. The 1968 protest shocked the country, creating a lot of publicity, and some myths, about the new movement. The 1969 protest was smaller and was largely ignored.

The 1968 protest originated with New York Radical Women, one of the earliest women's liberation groups in the country. About 150 feminists from six cities joined them to show how all women were hurt by beauty competitions. They argued that the contest declared that the most important thing about a woman is how she looks by parading women around like cattle to show off their physical attributes. All women were made to believe they were inferior because they couldn't measure up to Miss America beauty standards. Women's liberation would "attack the male chauvinism, commercialization of beauty, racism and oppression of women symbolized by the Pageant."

The Atlanta City convention center opens onto a vast boardwalk between it and the beach. The large expanse of boards easily seen from the entrance makes it a great place for demonstrations. Women's liberation took advantage of this to stage several guerilla theater actions. A live sheep was crowned Miss America. Objects of female oppression -- high heeled shoes, girdles, bras, curlers, tweezers -- were tossed into a Freedom Trash Can. A proposal to burn the can's contents was scuttled when the police said that a fire would pose a risk to the wooden boardwalk. Women sang songs that parodied the contest and the idea of selling women's bodies: "Ain't she sweet; making profits off her meat." A tall, Miss America puppet was auctioned off.

Sixteen feminists bought tickets to the evening's entertainment. They smuggled in a banner reading WOMEN'S LIBERATION. Sitting in the front row of the balcony, they unfurled it as the outgoing Miss America made her farewell speech, while shouting "Freedom for Women," and "No More Miss America." The pageant continued as though nothing had happened. This action was quickly followed by the release of two stink bombs on the floor of the hall. All protestors were removed from the hall; five were arrested, but later released.

The outrageousness of challenging the Miss America icon brought the press out in droves, putting women's liberation on the front pages all over the country. From this, women learned that a new feminist movement was emerging and flocked to join.
The 1968 demonstration also saddled women's liberation with the myth of bra burning. Forevermore the press would repeat that women burned their bras. They never remembered where this was supposed to have occurred, let alone that it never happened.

Women's liberation invited even more women to "Don't Miss America" the next year. They planned more "actions, excitement, analysis, militance." But very little happened.

(keep reading Jo Freeman's article.)

Understanding and appreciating art

Discovering Art History
I believe that this chapter I found can help some people understand some concepts and issues that are sometimes hard to identify.
Take a look:


I hope it helps. The most important is enjoying art but sometimes we need some keys.

Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey

Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey

The following is a statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), issued June 4. It has been slightly edited for readability. Follow Liberation News for frequent updates and statements from activists and organizations on the ground in Turkey as the struggle there unfolds.

1. For days now Turkey has been witnessing a genuine popular movement. The actions and protests, which started in Istanbul and have spread all over Turkey, have a massive, legitimate and historic character. The most important of all is the striking change in the mood of people. The fear and apathy has been overcome and people have gained self-confidence.

2. The Communist Party of Turkey has been part of the popular movement beginning from the first day and has mobilized all its forces, tried to strengthen the proletarian and revolutionary character of the movement, endeavored to encourage a mature attitude of discipline, and organized numerous actions and demonstrations. In this process, the police forces carried out a heavy assault on our party headquarters in Ankara. All over Turkey, several party members have been injured and arrested. There have been some attempts of abduction of our party cadres. But the attempts of provocations against our party were defeated.

3. Our emphasis on the role of the TKP does not aim to underestimate the spontaneous nature of the movement or contribution of the other political actors. On the contrary, the TKP stresses that this movement has an aspect that is beyond the impact of any political actor or any kind of political opportunism.

4. The call of the masses for the government to resign is an absolute demand of this movement. Although it is obvious that a leftist alternative cannot be built “right now,” this demand should be expressed loudly. This option for the working people can be generated only through benefitting from the energy that came out at this historical moment. The TKP will focus on this and expose the real meaning of alternatives like “the formation of a national government,” which will most likely be put forward to deceive the working masses into thinking that the crisis can be overcome that way.

5. Without a doubt, the holders of political power will try to calm the people down, institute control and even attempt to use the situation to their advantage. They can have temporary achievements. Even in that case, the popular movement would not be wasted. The TKP is ready for a period of stubborn but intense struggle.

6. In order to act in concert, different branches of the socialist movement sharing similar goals and concerns need to evaluate the rise of this popular movement immediately. The TKP, without interrupting its daily missions and activities, is going to act responsibly regarding this issue and endeavor for the creation of a common ground in line with the urgent demands below.

7. In order to nullify the plans of the government to classify and divide the popular movement as legitimate and illegitimate, all forces need to avoid steps that might cause damage to the legitimacy of the movement. It is the political power that attacks. The people should defend themselves as well as their rightful action but never fall into the provocation trap of the government.

8. While the masses are chanting the slogan “government, resign,” the negotiations limited to the future of the Taksim-Gezi Park are meaningless. The government pretends not to understand the fact that the old balance has been upset fundamentally and cannot be restored. Everybody knows that the popular movement is not the product of sympathy towards the trees in the Gezi Park. The anger of the people is over the urban transformation projects, the terror of the market, open direct interventions in different lifestyles, the Americanism and subordination to the U.S., the reactionary policies, the enmity towards the Syrian people. The AKP cannot deceive the people with a discourse of “we will plant more trees than the ones that we will chop down.”

9. While rolling up our sleeves in order to create an alternative of the working people, the movement needs to lean on certain concrete demands. These demands are valid in the case of the resignation of the government or of Erdogan:

a) The government must announce that the projects that involve the demolishing of Gezi Park and the Ataturk Cultural Center are terminated.

b) Those who were taken into custody during the resistance must be released, and all charges against them must be dropped immediately.

c) All officials whose crimes against the people are proven by reports of the commissions that are formed by the Union of Bar Associations* and local bar associations must be relieved of their duties.

d) The attempts that hinder the right of the people to get true news on the developments must be stopped.

e) All prohibitions regarding meetings, demonstrations and marches must be repealed.

f) All de facto or de jure obstacles that lock out the political participation of the people, including the 10 percent election threshold and the anti-democratic articles of the “law on political parties,” must be abolished.

g) All initiatives that attempt to impose a monolithic life style on all people must be stopped.

10. These urgent demands will in no case affect our right and duty to continue the opposition against the political power. The people’s reaction to the government must be reinforced, and efforts must be concentrated to bring about a real alternative in the political scene.

11. The star and the crescent Turkish flag that was intended to be used to provide a shield for reactionary and chauvinist attacks against laborers, leftists, and Kurdish people after the fascist military coup of September 12, 1980, has now been grasped by the people from the hands of fascism, and given to the honorable hands of Deniz Gezmiş and his comrades, as a flag in the hands of patriotic people.

12. The people’s movement, ever since the beginning, has persistently put down the sinister strategy to play one community against another in Turkey. This attitude must carefully be maintained, leaving no room for chauvinism or vulgar nationalism.

13. Appealing to our Kurdish brothers and sisters, we had already declared, “There can be no peace agreement with AKP.” There can be no deal with a political power to which its own people have turned their backs, and the true face of which has been revealed. Kurdish politics must give up “cherishing hopes of proceeding further with AKP,” and become a strong constituent part of a united, patriotic and enlightened laborer people’s movement.

14. Our citizens who have lost their lives at the hands of the police force of the political power have sacrificed their lives in the name of a just and historic struggle. The people are never going to forget their names, and those who are responsible for their deaths will pay the price before the law.

Central Committee
Communist Party of Turkey
4 June 2013

*This is the name of the Turkish lawyers association that are recognized as public organization and care for human rights and rights of the citizens. (note of the blogger. No. I'm not communist but I this is important.)

Tiananmen Square: 24 years/ Taksim Square: 5 days

Left: Student at Tiananmen Square, 1989.
Right: Young woman opens her arms as police use a water cannon to disperse protesters. 2013.

I don't know what to say. The recollection of young people being massacred is...
But a world without young people protesting?

Pin drop

I hate when it happens. He could hear a pin drop before the accident.
(I don't know the creator.)

Ai Weiwei's 100 million porcelain replicas of sunflower seeds

It was on October, 2010 that Tate Gallery opened the exhibition. 

Even though I've not been there I've seen so many pictures that I have in my imagination the sound of my feet walking on these sea of seeds, the feeling of having them on my hands, the amazement of watching the space...

It is only my imagination but it is already a lot especially in an era where seeds are in the center of a turmoil.

I look at this girl and wish her a great future.

Ai Weiwei is a political dissident explained:

"explained the sunflower was an integral part of Chinese Communist propaganda during the Cultural Revolution, where Mao Zedong was the sun and the people, as sunflowers, turned towards him. What the artist, who is also a political dissident, wanted was to bring another context to the popular Chinese street snack, as “a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness during a time of extreme poverty, repression and uncertainty.” 

The article by Poe also explains:

"The immensity and scale is unfathomable unless you’re there in person. Titled “Sunflower Seeds”, the latest work from famed Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei, it features more than 100 million replicas of, as the title described, sunflower seeds made from porcelain. As part of the Unilever Series at London’s Tate Modern, the exhibition carpets, at a depth of 4-inch, the largest space of museum, the Turbine Hall. The exhibit took around 1,600 skilled artisans from the city of Jingdezhen, an area known for its fine porcelain production in China, a total of 2 years to produced.  Weigh around 150-ton in total, each seed was molded, fired at the kiln, hand-painted, re-fired, and repeat, a process involved 20 to 30 steps."  (emphasis added)

Entire article here.

Fail with art

Fail?
I don't think so!